Low Ball Offers | How To Handle Real Estate Negotiations.

They happen. And letting the seller of a property know to expect them helps when they are received. Need to be relayed for a reaction. Often the buyer making it demands immediate possesssion, a list of extra things they expect the seller to do. They can overwhelm the property owner because of being so one sided and unreasonable in the seller’s opinion. In a slow real estate market, there are not truck loads of buyers coming down the pike. So any and all offers are considered seriously.

Reminding the seller of a listing by law we have to convey any and all offers we receive is necessary before and during the presentation of an offer on real estate.

Even if the property owner tells the agent or broker at the listing at the kitchen table don’t call me with anything less than the price tag hanging off the property on the mls platform. Seller can hold the low ball offer against the agent or broker. That’s why relaying them is not the most enjoyable part of our job.

First, why do low ball offers happen?

Sometimes it is all the buyer can afford for real estate. And they hope maybe you are in a charitable mood, that there could be a desperate situation that would cause the seller to take it. Often the offer of any size is just designed to learn today, would you take any less for the property than the listing price Mr and Mrs, Miss or MS Seller?

What is the bottom line, show me what is the best you can do today if you are serious about selling with this price, these conditions. This is classic real estate negotiationing to make it work for both sides of the real estate teeter totter. It may not be fair for all, but is it accepted? Can a low ball offer be negotiated into one that will fly and get everyone to a real estate closing?

Time will tell if communication happens in the negotiation. It will die if neglected and the discussion about the offer and what to do next are not occuring.

Watching HGTV does not help and on television, out in Hollywood the reality of these west coast shows is less than accurate.

Because California media producers holler lights, camera, action to create something entertaining. To score high in the ratings. So making it look easy when there is more to it than is shown in the show does not help me. When I have to explain to a buyer or seller that on television it happens in staged transactions. Cute sound bites and video clips with commercial break sandwiched between the three homes a high end buyer tramps through. In real life, it is not taken so casually in small rural low priced Maine.

When the seller says “I’m not going to give it away” the containment of the anger has to happen early on. Before he takes it real personal and feels disrespected. What is being sold makes a difference too. Many people would chuckle at the low ball offer on real estate and just say no. When it is there recreational land, a vacation property and not their built with their own two hands from scratch family home. Or the place they grew up in and the way way too low offer on their parent’s place does not set well in their stomach.

Just say no.

Keep it cool heads, calm hearts to low ball overs that go over like a lead balloon.

Or let’s start talking about what would you sell the property for today works best to try to come up with a counter offer to relay back to the real estate buyer.

Regardless of the offer size, time to mull it over and consider would a price reduction be in order must be allowed.

The don’t think about it ASAP, to have to decide in the next ten minutes or by high noon today is too tight for most property owners to consider. To make a snap decision that will haunt them the rest of their life. Their families are involved, more than just yes or no slung back like a tennis serve to a number wildly thrown out by the real estate buyer.

And “heck no” is the instant reaction when no time to ponder the offer because the time table is to quick to mull it over.

As a real estate broker, when a low ball offer comes in, it is not fun and games to have to be the one to convey it. Because it can look like you the real estate professional better do higher than that for the big commission in the sale paid at the tail end.

What do you want to do with this low ball offer that has been presented property owner? Things can get a little stressful, tension can enter the room, the air you and the seller share. Not everyone has much experience in negotiations and how it is done is one facet of our job as a real estate broker in Maine.

What should I do takes consideration of how things are going in the property owner’s life and what is the motivation to sell today.

It is simple a business transaction in the buy and sell process. Offers are part of the real estate sale. The listed price can be the only figure the seller will consider accepting. There may be no wiggle room to make the price quoted as low as possible going in. And a smart seller will adjust the price a tad lower when the marketing time, the days on market DOM figure starts to climb.

Everyone stay calm and discuss the simple math exercise.

Clearing what is owned on the property can affect what you the seller want to do but not unless you dip deep into the pocket. To pay off anything needed to add to the offer to clear the bank mortgage or any other liens on the title to the real estate for sale.

Every property owner and buyer share one desire. They both want to buy low, sell high.

To be a hero. Tell all their loved ones, their friends down at the club. They like to brag about how savvy a business person they were to get this much this cheap. You work hard for your money, you want to hang onto it right? To make it stretch and be frugal is just good business.

If the offer is too low, the seller often won’t even respond with a number back.

They don’t take the low ball offer too serious because it is not even close to a few thousand dollars from the listed price. But if the possession date can increase in winter, if the buyer will purchase equipment that was not included in the sale for a decent price, the lower offer is considered with all the other elements of a real estate sale.

Staying rent free for the winter in the home just sold but that allows a move in spring and time to look for the next real estate puzzle piece needed by the seller. That can help sweeten the sting of a lower offer on property in Maine.

Fewer contingencies, cash not complicated bank financing or relying on another property to sell first can make a lower offer more attractive. If closing costs have to come out of the seller’s pocket in that offer, then the bottom line is lower than first glance at what is filled in on the purchase offer price in the sales agreement.

Keep it simple, think if you were the seller, how would you react if the deal is too one sided.

Going back and forth can get tedious and too many trips to the buyer and seller can kill the sale. Both can get annoyed if a common middle ground can not be reached for a compromise. A compromise is often best when neither buyer and seller are happy so both made concessions for the good of the deal to keep it alive and kicking.

In a deal that is already stressed to the max, the low ball offer can really be swallowed hard and goes down the wrong way.

The steps to take when a low ball offer is presented on a property listing for sale.

The buyer and seller have different opinions on what the value of the property for sale is. A bank appraiser is going to weigh in too. So regardless what is agreed to on the purchase and sale agreement, it is what the mortgage lender valuation and repair costs does to that figure agreeded to up front by the real estate buyer or seller. A bank loan appraiser can kill the sale because he or she is not in agreement with the figure the buyer and seller agreed to earlier on.

How long the home, whatever property has been for sale impacts the reaction to a low ball offer too. Time has a way of making a seller lower their sights. Buyers don’t want a property more when they learn it has been for sale for years. They wonder what is wrong and why hasn’t the place sold.

Often the price is just too high, that is all that is keeping a sale of the property when the seller holds firm to the wrong price. That the listing agent or broker should have respectfully pointed out from review of the comparable sales and listings that it is too high. Not often, but sometimes too low.

Don’t take those over priced listings saves everyone heart ache and wasted spinning their wheels and wasting time, money that takes away from other fairly priced properties.

The market value can rock and lower because of the local economy or too big a supply with lower demand of this type of property. Real estate listings swim in a market stream that warms up, cools off and the current one can pick up or slow down. Read more on what keeps a house, property from selling?

The way the low ball offer is made can impact the seller’s reaction to it. If the buyer let’s it be known this place is a dump, who the heck would want it with those stupid too relaxed a carpenter improvements, that crazy color scheme, etc. You hurt the seller’s feelings and become the last person on Earth they would sell to Chummy.

Beating them up, being a real estate bully works in reverse to what the offer make hopes for in a sale.

It does break the ice and soften up the seller for the next call from the agent or broker. The next offer presented professionally with a politely, would you consider selling for this amount with plenty of time to think it over before the response is expected. Those kind of offers go smoother, are more professional even if not accepted. The offers as they come in one by one shows there is interest. Just not at this price. They let the property listing seller know maybe the price has to drop, like the agent or broker has gently suggested if they think about past conversations when being updated on how’s the market, why is my property not selling, etc.

Marketing far away from the local area can increase the number of leads for a quicker, more profitable sale. Outside buyers are used to higher property price tags than the local buyer can handle too. We pride ourselves on far reaching, full throttle outside and local marketing of our real estate listings. So the buyers and sellers can get on with live.To not be made to wait around. Delayed when plans are put on hold and it is like treading water for a very long time. Hoping for something to happen to get on with the show. Costly delays are caused when time bleeds and causes expensive hanging around when the buyer and seller need to move along.

Adding or taking away something small from the real estate offer can make all the difference.

Leave those three bar stools and curtains you were planning on taking Mr Seller. Don’t quibble over the fifty gallons of heating oil or the worn out lawnmower the buyer has his eye on. And asking the owner do you really think you will be using some of these items in your new place that they won’t fit?

Think about it. What is the stumbling block to the sale moving forward. Is it worth the cost to move harvest gold old appliances, lots of heavy furniture half way across the country considering moving van costs or their L3 and L4 back joint if the heave ho is DIY? It all starts and ends with discussion and questions raised, answers provided by the real estate professional. Thinking of buying or selling? Put 38 years of experience doing both to work for you by calling, emailing, texting MOOERS REALTY when you are ready.

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Andrew Mooers

Welcome to our Maine real estate website. I am the father of four grown children, have listed, marketed, sold properties for close to forty years. Lots of changes in the real estate industry over that many decades and daily we re-invent our job. I grew up on a Maine farm that I bought from by three older brothers. My youngest son continues in the tradition on that same Maine farm. Here to help with property searches for homes, farms, land, waterfront, multi housing rentals, small mom and pop business listings.

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